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Brian Cassey: Varanasi

Varanasi - the Holiest city in India and one of the oldest continually inhabited on Earth - supposedly founded by the Lord Shiva around five thousand years ago.

The River Ganges - worshipped by Hindus as the Goddess Ganga. Tens of thousands of the faithful bathe in the waters of the Holy River from the ghats every day.

But Varanasi is now more than just the Ganga, ghats and gurus. It is a maddening manic city of around one and a half million inhabitants. Just a few streets from the spirituallity of the ghats the city teems with people, tuk-tuks, cycle rickshaws, carts and masses of other vehicles - with horns blaring and bells jangling - all trying to avoid the sacred cows that pepper the streets.

This mass of humanity means the Ganges is one of the most polluted waterways on the planet with fecal coliform bacteria levels over a hundred times the official Indian government limit. Added to the sewerage and other pollutants, the burning ghats still dispose of around 300 bodies a day into the river.

The faithful still bathe in ecstasy ...